The Crooked Christmas Tree Sew Along Week 4

So, just a word of my current reality, I have been on the road for work and to teach the Painted Cow since before I posted the Sew Along Week 3 blog post. (One full week!!) That means, I didn’t have access to my studio for this post. So, I found some paper and markers and drew out some quilting options for you to consider.

My Unveiling!

This is my finished mini quilt! I really like how it turned out with the colors. I do sorta wish I had enough of the white fabric for the outer borders, but the gray works.

Option 1

I quilted this using a sort of repeat, decreasing shape that allowed me to move down to the next section of the tree. This image below shows this drawn out in pen. I applied a wood grain pattern in the tree trunk and spirals all around the background.

To quilt this design in the tree start in the top section at the top left of that section. Moving to the right, continue to follow the inside of the shape “in-lining” at a quarter inch until you reach the center. From the center come straight down to the top center of the next section if tree and repeat. (I am actually better with thread, but you get the idea.)

Option 2

Below is a second option to give the tree more of a pine tree feel. The nice thing is that the shape itself is just curvy lines in an up and down pattern following the sections of the tree. In pen it looks a little like fire, but in thread it will read more like a tree. Again start at the top working one section at a time. If you work from side to side it will be less obvious to the eye where the line moved down to the next section.

Option 3

If you have one or more favorite motifs, you could mix and match them in each section of the tree. Or just apply one motif in all the sections.

Background

For the background, you could simply stitch in the ditch. You could also quilt a motif in each scrappy square. I did an all over pattern for the background because I want the tree to be the focus. In the original Crooked Christmas Tree mini below, I just stippled the background.

In the sew along finished mini above, I did spirals for the entire background.

Whatever you do, have fun with it and FINISH IT!! Don’t let it sit!! You can do this! You’ve made it this far and I just really want to thank everyone who played along!

Remember to post on social media using @jitterywings so I can see your amazing work!!